Tuesday, April 24, 2012

A Garden of Healthy Mind, Body and Spirit

It is gardening season and if you haven't started to plan your garden, it is time to start.  If you aren't a gardener and need some encouragement to start, let me help!  The benefits of gardening are many.  Here are just a few.

Gardening is physical work and therefore gets the body moving, exercising and active.  Folks who garden have improved cardio-vascular health and immune system strength.  Oftentimes, without a specific strength training program in place, folks don't get a regular strength workout for their muscles.  This is part of gardening.  The hauling, the lifting, the pulling, the pushing, all strengthening the muscles.  Muscle strength is an important part of the aging process.  Muscles that are un-used and weak do not help with balance, with posture, with walking up stairs..... How will you keep you body strong?  Gardening is one way!

Gardening takes some knowledge.  Each year I get further along in the process.  I garden more space, I try new plants, my garden needs more of something, a new pest arrives and more.  Each challenge in gardening requires some learning, some effort to understand and this keeps the brain busy with new connections and new ideas.  To keep the brain healthy, we have to keep learning, keep challenging, keep things new up there in the gray matter.  Figuring out how to garden can do that!

Grow things you love to look at and love to eat.  If you grow some fresh and healthy herbs (which I highly recommend), you will cook healthy, fresh meals - good for you!  If you grow some vegetables, you will find great satisfaction in harvesting and consuming.  If you grow fruit (such as berries or tomatoes), there is nothing more delicious than that fresh taste!  Not to mention, the higher amount of vitamins and minerals in a fruit or vegetable that you harvest fresh.  The taste of some fresh vegetables or fruits often makes a convert.  An apple or a tomato fresh from your yard tastes so much better than from the store, some people realize they really do like them!  This is true of me and peas.  A fresh sweet pea is yummy, but buying peas in the frozen food aisle won't happen on any trip I take to the grocery store!

It is incredibly satisfying to raise, care for, harvest, prepare, and consume food you grew.  It is incredibly satisfying to come home to a space blooming with plants and flowers you love to look at and smell and wander through that you grew, designed and chose.  A garden feeds the soul!  Gardening is like yoga.  It takes care of the mind, the body, and the spirit.  It is important to think this way, because sometimes the physical labor is the focus. But, be sure to linger, to smell, to touch, to enjoy all you put in to this labor and the rewards will be there!  Your mind, your body, and your spirit will grow along with your garden!

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